Films“There has never been a great film unless it was created in the spirit of the experimental film maker” - Len Lye
Lye once remarked that: “Every film [I made], I tried to interest myself in it by doing something not previously done in film technique.” Even at 78, in the last year of his life, he completed one of his most radical films: Particles in Space.
Film-maker Alberto Cavalcanti wrote in Sight and Sound in 1947: “Len Lye could be described in the history of British cinema by one word - experiment.” John Taylor, who supervised Lye’s work at the Realist Film Unit during the war, remarked: “I think he is probably the one truly original thinker I’ve met - he had completely his own approach to everything.”
Some of Lye's films listed below link to additional information.
Lye’s films:
- Tusalava, 1929
- Experimental Animation (Peanut Vendor), 1934
- A Colour Box, 1935
- Kaleidoscope, 1935
- The Birth of the Robot, 1936
- Rainbow Dance, 1936
- Trade Tattoo, 1937
- N or NW, 1937
- Colour Flight, 1938
- Swinging the Lambeth Walk, 1939
- Musical Poster #1, 1940
- Color Cry, 1953
- Rhythm, 1957
- All Souls Carnival, 1957
- Free Radicals, 1958 (revised 1979)
- Peace (Fountain of Hope), 1959
- Particles in Space, 1980
- Tal Farlow, 1980
This list of mostly animated films does not include the innovative documentaries Lye made during wartime:
- When the Pie was Opened, 1941
- Newspaper Train, 1942
- Work Party, 1942
- Kill or Be Killed, 1942
- Cameramen at War, 1943
There are also a number of short films of a more commercial kind: Life’s Musical Minute, Prime Time, Percussion, Planned Crops, Collapsible Metal Tubes, The Sign of Plexiglass, the Basic English series, and various episodes of The March of Time.
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